Coaching World Issue 5: February 2013 | Page 6

Blog If done well, your blog can be a powerful tool to promote your business/services; boost additional web traffic to your website; and connect with potential clients. Concerned with content? The growth of coaching in recent years has been phenomenal—as such, people are constantly searching for more information about it. In addition to writing about your own business and coaching, talk in broader terms about the profession. Answer those frequently asked questions you have heard over the years. Shed insight into what coaching is and what it isn’t. Talk about the coaching process and how people can determine if it will work for them. 60% of businesses have a business or company blog— of these, 35% actively blog at least once a month. (Blogging.org, 2012) OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS YOU MIGHT CONSIDER USING: YouTube There are over 800 million unique visitors to YouTube each month (YouTube, 2012). If you create videos, a branded YouTube channel is a perfect way to house your collection. Your own channel allows viewers to subscribe to your content (and be immediately notified of any new videos you post). Through YouTube, it is simple to embed your videos directly into blog posts for use across other social media platforms. Pinterest This relatively new platform is all about increasing your business’ visibility. Potential ideas for use include: sharing favorite quotes, books, success stories, etc. Be creative! It was found that 69 percent of online consumers who visit Pinterest have found an item they’ve bought or wanted to buy, compared with 40 percent of Facebook users (Huffington Post, 2012). Also, 43 percent of people prefer Pinterest to associate with retailers or brands; 24 percent chose Facebook (Huffington Post, 2012). Pinterest use continues to grow amongst businesses with the now available Pinterest Business pages. If you have any tips or strategies when it comes to social media usage, we would love to hear them! Tweet them to us using this hash tag: #icfsmtip Works Cited 1. Facebook. (2012, October). Retrieved December 4, 2012, from http://www.facebook.com/: http://newsroom.fb.com/Key-Facts 2. Huffington Post. (2012, November 29). Retrieved December 4, 2012, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brianhonigman/100-fascinating-social-me_b_2185281.html 3. LinkedIn Press Center. (2012, September 30). Retrieved December 5, 2012, from LinkedIn: http://press.linkedin.com/About 4. TechCrunch. (2012, May 14). Retrieved December 4, 2012, from http://techcrunch.com/: http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/14/itu-there-are-now-over-1billion-users-of-social-media-worldwide-most-on-mobile/ Kristin Kelly is the woman behind ICF’s social media initiates. She’s the one who keeps you informed through Facebook, shares interesting art